Alafi

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Cohen’s research and discovery of genetic mutation Cohen has been a professor of medicine and researcher at Stanford University since 1968. In 1973, he and a colleague began collaborating on what eventually resulted in the discovery of recombinant DNA. Cohen has described recombinant DNA as “a way to take genes from one organism and transplant them to another and propagate them in the organism.” The discovery has enabled researchers to study genes and produce products made by genes, which has been described as the genesis of modern biotechnology. That included, for instance, transplanting human genes into bacteria to create RNA and protein, which became the methodology for producing insulin and growth hormones, similar to the cloning used to make messenger RNA vaccines for treatment of COVID infections. Cohen and his colleague’s discovery led to the licensing of roughly 475 patents assigned to Stanford University. Following his discovery of recombinant DNA, Cohen continued his academic research at Stanford over the next several decades. In 2010, Cohen began working with Cheng to research the genetic cause of Huntington’s disease and to seek…